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TORONTO - On Wednesday afternoon, before the Blue Jays concluded their three-game series with the Colorado Rockies, TSN.ca sat down with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey to discuss the clubs recent winning streak, managing expectations and his health. The following is the transcript of the interview: TSN.ca: R.A. I think back to some of the things that you said after some starts earlier on in the year when things werent good. I think you used the word "sad" after a game in New York, just the way that things were going for the team. Youve talked about, youve wrote about it in your book, about managing regret. When things are going well for yourself and for the team, is it important to manage your way through the good times so that you dont get overconfident? DICKEY: Sure. I think its important to celebrate whats going on. I think thats very important. I think theres a way to do that that allows you to stay in the moment and not think too highly of where youre going or where you are. But as hard as we take defeats and not pitching or performing up to our expectation, its healthy for us to celebrate things when they do go well. TSN.ca: In terms of where youre at here right now, youve had some very good starts of late. Health-wise is the issue with your neck completely and totally out of the way? Because if you look at your miles per hour it seems like your velocity is back. DICKEY: Yes, Im over the hurdle of the neck and back issue that had plagued me for the better part of the first couple of months and Im thankful for that because it really allows me to do my work in between innings and get back on a normal routine. Im getting back to mechanically the way that I was last year and thats encouraging. TSN.ca: How difficult was it, R.A., to pitch through that because we sit up there or we watch you on TV and youre out there and youre doing your thing. You didnt give any visible signs out there on the mound to the naked eye but how tough a stretch was that for you? DICKEY: Well its tough in the sense that I want to be what the Blue Jays gave up to get me. I want to be that good and so when youre not that good it can play tricks on your mind and you really have to focus and have some vision about where you want to go and work to that end. Now, a lot of times when you do have an injury youre limited in how much work you can do and even what youre able to produce on the field sometimes it can affect that. But with the type of pitch I throw and the style of pitching I exhibit on the field Im able to take the ball sometimes when maybe as a conventional pitcher I wouldnt have been able to do that. I try to be thankful that Im able to do that and put up some quality innings even when Im not feeling great because I throw a knuckleball and Im able to do that. TSN.ca: You talk all the time, specific to your pitch, about the process and how you are learning everyday. Are there things that you take now that youre healthy, out of that month, month-and-a-half long stretch when things werent so good, whether its in your mechanics or in your delivery, have you grown out of that experience? DICKEY: I think Im growing out of that experience. When youre nursing injuries your body is going to choose the path of least resistance. A lot of times thats not the most mechanically efficient way. For me, Ive gotten into some bad habits protecting my condition and my muscle memory started to learn those bad habits and it takes a couple of starts and some good times in between your bullpen to first be able to identify what those differences are and correct them. Im getting to the place where I know what I need to correct and I feel like Im healthy enough to correct them so thats a good sign. TSN.ca: As a professional athlete does doubt, I mean youve been through so much and youve detailed it, does doubt ever creep into your mind? Maybe not so much for yourself but for the team? The expectations were so high at the start of the year and to get off to that 10-21 start through 31 games, was there ever any doubt that hey, maybe were not going to be able to turn this around or do you have to be relentlessly optimistic? DICKEY: Well, I think theres something to trying to have a bullet proof confidence and a short-term memory. I think thats important but were not cyborgs, were human beings and when things dont go like you anticipate them going you ask questions about those things and those questions sometimes do lead to doubt. We would be lying, everybody in here would be lying if we said we didnt have any fear or doubt. Its just, as athletes, we learn how to manage those things so they dont impact the way that we work, the way that we perform. But sure, yeah, I doubted myself and just got to the place where I needed to take the next step forward and was able to do that where it didnt impact me. We all go through that, everybody to a man in here deals with the same emotions that you would deal with away from the field. TSN.ca: Is it easier or more difficult to maintain a winning streak than it is to snap out of a funk? When youre on a skid Im sure it seems like its never ending. When youre going through what youre going through right now, Im sure you never want it to end. DICKEY: Yeah, theyre similar in that regard. I mean, when youre going badly, its tough. You feel like you may never win another game and then you win another game and youre like, oh okay, we can do this again. When youre winning like we have been winning, you feel like when you come to the park theres nobody in the world that can beat you. Its just the psychology of competition, really. Were not afforded the luxury of panic in here, we cant, so we have to be steadfast in our belief in one another, our belief that we have the pieces in here to win a championship. So thats what were doing, were leaning on that belief and really encouraging one another. Were also growing closer as a clubhouse culture. I think when you throw a bunch of people in a clubhouse like we were thrown into at the beginning of the year and I had to go to the WBC and others had to break off from the team you miss something. You dont really know what that something is but you miss it. Slowly but surely I think weve really grown to be comfortable around one another and thats a big deal. TSN.ca: Getting Reyes back very soon and considering that outside of that ninth inning home run in the first game of the win streak against Chicago that Jose Bautista had, I think hes had only three singles in the last six games in some 23 at bats, when you consider that you have gone on this stretch without Reyes and essentially without Bautista at his offensive best, are those little takeaways that as a club you can put in your back pocket and say if, man, we get Reyes back and Bautista gets hot, theres not necessarily a ceiling? DICKEY: Yeah, you know, I think thats an encouragement, sure, but at the same time, the way that baseball is rarely do you ever have all nine people in the lineup going at full capacity all at once. Jose hadnt been playing like hes capable of playing so Edwin picks him up and Lindo picks him up and Izturis gets some big hits. I havent been pitching like Im capable of pitching and so Buehrle picks me up and we pick each other up. Thats part of being on a good team is that you dont have to feel the pressure of having to be at your very best and not give up any runs every outing or, you know, the walls are going to crumble down around you. You have the luxury of looking to your left and seeing Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson and others, Rogers, whos stepped up just incredibly. Thats part of being on a good team is that we pick each other up. TSN.ca: In terms of the snowball effect and I mean this more in a fun way than a pressure way, you dont want to be the starting pitcher whose start snaps the streak? DICKEY: It would be unprofessional of me to want it any more badly than I wanted it two weeks ago. That part doesnt change. You know, you cant say today Im not going to be the guy because every time I go out there I want to win the baseball game, period, whether were on a 50-game win streak or a 50-game losing streak, it doesnt matter. So that part doesnt change. As competitors we want it to last as long as it possibly can and we all want to do whatever we can do to make it last that long. TSN.ca: When you first arrived here you talked about the opportunity to be a Canadian for a little while. How are you enjoying the city, how is your family adjusting and how different have you found it from Nashville and other places youve been? DICKEY: Well its a little bit different but difference doesnt always suggest that its bad. I enjoy the differences between Canada and America to be honest with you. Ive really enjoyed my time. I think the fan base is a very fair fan base. I know that Ive felt encouragement when I should and Ive also felt disdain when I should. Thats part of having a passionate fan base and I wouldnt want it any other way. Air Max 95 Clearance Canada . "Theyve both been real good," said Babcock. "Havent changed our minds." 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Julius Randle overcame a scoreless first half and added his sixth double-double in as many games with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Cheap Wholesale Air Max 95 .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. Dimuth Karunaratnes momentary doze on the batting crease and Peter Nevills sharp response to stump him, released a torrent of sanctimony familiar to anyone who has read much about the Olympics these past two weeks. The spirit of cricket had been trampled on by Nevills alertness, reinforcing Australias reputation as a team up to no good - or so the opinion went.Nevermind that Karunaratne had ignored the fact the ball isnt dead until it has returned to the bowler, or that wicketkeepers the world over are perpetually trying to catch a batsman out in this way and Nevill was a rare one to succeed. The moment drew out a chorus of tut-tutting that only really abated when Adam Gilchrist emerged to tweet the following: Nothing unethical about this one. Just a little bit lazy by batsman.Later, an instance was found where Darren Lehmann had been dismissed in more or less the same manner by Romesh Kaluwitharana in a 1996 ODI. A little like Mankading, Nevills stumping provided another instance where batsmen should be more conscious of checking their privilege.There was another cricketing point to the farrago, one of far greater import to Australia and borne out further as the fourth day at the SSC went on. If it was going to take an alert Nevills moment of opportunism to manufacture a wicket for the spinners on a turning and deteriorating pitch, then the tourists were going to be waiting a long time to get through Sri Lankas batting. How true this turned out to be, as Kaushal Silva and Dinesh Chandimal set about building a handsome lead.Irrespective of the result in this match, Australias cricketers, coaches and selectors were hoping to see signs of progress over five days, especially in the departments of batting and spin bowling. While Mitchell Starc has been the outstanding Australian performer in the series, and Josh Hazlewood has offered sturdy support, pace was always something of a sideshow in these climes. The greater onus was on the batsmen to build partnerships and big scores, and the spinners to take wickets through unrelenting pressure on helpful surfaces.The inclusion of Shaun Marsh and the batting evolution of the captain Steven Smith allowed for the former to occur at least in part on days one and two. Their partnership was something for the top six and their mentors to take home to Australia with a sense that at least two players had been able to show the way - even if the rest failed to capitalise on it.But the same could not be said for Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland when their turn came to exert an influence on the match. Rather than coming into their own on the same pitch Rangana Herath was able to use to harvest six wickets, Lyon and Holland were frustrated at length by impish Sri Lankan batting and their own inability to find the consistency required of spinners against opponents raised on a steady diet of slow bowling.Lyon and Holland are both bowlers capable of delivering high quality stuff - their best offerings are arguably more potent than those of Herath, being whirred down from greater heights and so able to gain greater bounce while also being loaded with plenty of revolutions. However the ability to land ball after ball in the same small area of the pitch while close-in fielders sweat on batting errors is what counts most in Asia, and on that count both have been found wanting.For this, a large degree of crredit needs to go to Sri Lanka, who have manipulated fields by canny use of sweep shots and heaves over the top at well-chosen moments.dddddddddddd As their latest centurion Kaushal Silva put it: We were positive. When you play on this kind of a wicket you need to manoeuvre the fielders around, you cant have fielders in catching positions. Our guys played shots and reverse swept so they had to put a fielder there. Those are the little things you need to do when batting, especially the sweep we did it quite often in the series, so that helped us to move the fielders so that they had to do something different which is not their plan.Nevertheless, Lyon and Holland needed to be able to counter with their own consistency, and a strong self-belief to stick at the task. Wicketkeeper Peter Nevill has had a ringside seat to this contest, and agreed that neither Lyon nor Holland has been allowed to get into any sort of comfortable groove. Our spinners have done their best to adapt as best they can and I think its been an admirable effort, but their batsmen have played spin exceptionally well and made it very hard for a spinner to settle, he said. Theyve swept really well, used their feet well, so a lot of credits got to go to their batsmen.What will be most troubling for Lehmann, Smith and the selection chairman Rod Marsh is the fact that day four in Colombo was a much better opportunity for Lyon and Holland to influence the outcome than any other juncture of the series. Certainly it was a world away from the scenario they faced in Galle, when a large first innings lead had been conceded. This time around the game was finally balanced entering the second innings, with the narrative to be written by the team that took the initiative through skill and mental sharpness.But rather than Lyon and Holland making use of the lessons they have learned over the past two weeks, it was Sri Lanka who emerged the stronger, as Australias spinners kept on trying to make adjustments in terms of pace, length and arm path. Both men landed the occasional delivery in the perfect spot, eliciting sharp turn and bounce. But they did not do so often enough to corner their opponents, and when the wickets did start to come later in the day, Sri Lankas lead had already assumed proportions never successfully chased on this ground. These belated breakthroughs were arguably serving more to open the game up for the hosts than the visitors - the opposite of what Australia had hoped for.Having made his debut in Sri Lanka five years ago, Lyon is now the most senior member of the Australian team in terms of Test matches played. He is also the song master, entrusted with the job of belting out Underneath the Southern Cross after Test match victories. It will be a source of enormous frustration for him that he has not been able to emerge as a decisive force in this series, and cause for the selectors to ponder the right combination to take to India next year.When the review of Australias defeat is undertaken as the chief executive James Sutherland has promised, more time will be spent analysing Lyons failure to perform as the lead strike bowler on tour than on an opportunistic stumping effected by an aware wicketkeeper. It should be, anyway. ' ' '